Hockey Canada is dedicated to “Leading, Developing and Promoting Positive Hockey Experiences.” For many years, we as an organization and with the support of our branches and minor hockey associations have delivered programming around the prevention of bullying, harassment and abuse. Through education, promotion and policy and procedure we have been able to reduce bullying, harassment and abuse in the game and we thank you for your support in this prevention.

As the world’s technology becomes more and more advanced, we see many benefits created – but if websites, email, texting and social media are used in negative ways the cyber world becomes a negative experience for children, teens and adults.

As administrators, coaches, officials, safety people, parents and players in the game of hockey, we all have a responsibility to stop bullying, harassment and abuse in the game, and cyberbullying is an important component of this prevention.

Hockey Canada has teamed up with Kids Help Phone and PREVNet to bring you resources and tools to assist you with prevention of cyberbullying in the hockey environment and we urge you to review the information provided.

We hope you find the cyberbullying resources we have put together useful and we thank you for your dedication to the game.

Bullying

Bullying is defined by the combined use of aggression and power. It occurs when one or more individuals abuse power and direct verbal, physical or social aggression at another individual. Harm inflicted by bullying may be physical, psychological, social or educational.

Bullying includes a continuum of hurtful behaviours that can range in severity from name-calling to criminal assault. Bullying among youth is addressed by education legislation in seven provinces and one territory. Most commonly, the legislation pertains to any incident that affects the learning climate of a school, whether or not it took place on school property, face to face, or through cyberbullying.

To learn more about bullying legislation in your province or territory, see Policy and Legislation atwww.prevnet.ca. Bullying among adults is addressed through harassment and human rights legislation as well as criminal law.

Social bullying includes rolling your eyes or turning away from someone, excluding others from the group, gossiping or spreading rumours, setting others up to look foolish, or damaging friendships.

Racial bullying includes treating people badly because of their racial or ethnic background, saying bad things about a cultural background, calling someone racist names, or telling racist jokes.

Religious bullying includes treating people badly because of their religious background or beliefs, saying bad things about a religious background or belief, calling someone names, or telling jokes based on his or her religious beliefs.

Sexual bullying includes leaving someone out or treating them badly because they are a boy or a girl; making someone feel uncomfortable because of their gender or sexual orientation; making sexist comments or jokes; touching, pinching or grabbing someone in a sexual way; making crude comments about someone’s sexual behaviour; spreading a sexual rumour about someone; or calling someone gay, a fag, a lesbian, or similar names.

Disability bullying includes leaving someone out or treating them badly because of a disability, making someone feel uncomfortable because of a disability, or making comments or jokes to hurt someone with a disability

Cyberbullying includes the use of email, cell phones, text messages and internet sites to threaten, harass, embarrass, humiliate, socially exclude or damage another person’s reputations and friendships.

The following is a non-exhaustive list of bullying behaviours that are used to intimidiate, distress, or control others: